A/B split tests will not yield meaningful results if you lose sight of what you are testing. Many marketers measure the success of their email campaigns by their email marketing statistics. They test for open rates, click-to-open ratios, forwards, etc. and forget to compare these statistics to their overall conversions. Examples of conversion measurements would include units sold, revenue earned, increase in email sign-ups, white paper downloads, etc. Opens and clicks are great, but those metrics don’t pay the bills. Without knowing how conversion metrics are affected by your email marketing campaigns, all of the other email statistics aren’t going to provide you a reflection of honest value. When reviewing your statistics, you should ask yourself questions like:

Are the subscribers who click my links actually buying something?

Do my open rates equate to more white paper downloads?

Am I incentivizing people to engage in my brand or are they just “browsing”?

After you identify the most relevant statistics to test for conversion optimization, make sure you test the relevant areas of your email. Below are three common mistakes to avoid when conducting A/B split tests.

Three Common Mistakes:

Avoid the 50/50 trap – Performing a split test where half your list receives one test copy and half receives the other can be beneficial for initial testing. However, avoid performing this for every test, as you will not be able to effectively measure message impact. Typical split tests use the 10-10-80 rule, where two tests each go to 10% of your list. The winner of those two messages would be sent to the remaining 80%.

Avoid “one and done” split testing – Testing one aspect of your email one time will not give you meaningful data on which to base an entire campaign. Try to test one variable in a few different ways before making long-term changes.

Avoid interpreting inconclusive results as failure – If you conduct a test and the results are similar, don’t consider it a failed test. There may be very good reasons why results were inconclusive. It could mean that what you tested wasn’t an important aspect of your message, or that both tests did well. Keep testing until you prove your theories.

Split testing can be a very useful tool for your overall email marketing success. For assistance in split testing, contact your Account Manager.

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